[Graphic content warning] This video that shows an SUV crushing a baby girl while her mom checks her smartphone has sparked mourning and outrage on Chinese social media, as people shame the mom for distraction and warn others of “the perils of overusing smartphones.”
Surveillance cameras captured a slow-moving S.U.V. hitting a 2-year-old girl who had veered into its path. Her mother, trailing behind on a street in a provincial Chinese city, had been glued to her phone and appeared not to notice that the vehicle had started moving. By the time an ambulance arrived, the girl had died. (…)
The toddler’s death last month, in Yueyang, in the southern province of Hunan, has led to an outpouring of anger on Chinese social media about the dangers of being obsessed with one’s phone. Even a local government agency weighed in last week, calling for people to cut back on smartphone use.
“Heart-wrenching!” the Shandong provincial prosecutor’s office wrote on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. “Put down your phone. Save the children!”
The death of Tutu, as the girl was identified in Chinese news reports, is just the latest example of how “distracted walking” can threaten public safety.
